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Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser had a message this week as he met with investors, analysts and select media: natural gas has great promise.

Gas is as important to Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) production and profits as crude oil is these days. That’s the net result of billions in divestitures and purchases in recent years.

Separately, in discussing his leadership style with Barrons.com, Voser made it clear he’s no chameleon. “I am my DNA … You cannot change yourself. Stick to what you know best and trust people to help you on that journey. I believe in teams, in diverse teams …”

Most energy stocks were trading lower in sympathy with the market today, as crude oil was down nearly 2% at midday.

Total (TOT) and Shell (RDSA) were in focus; the former gave a rare warning about the potential environmental damages resulting from arctic drilling. In an interview with the Financial Times, Total Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said that a spill in an ecosystem like Greenland would be a “disaster,” both for the environment and the company’s imagine.

The news of course comes as Shell pushes ahead with its own arctic drilling plans, off the coast of Alaska. A spokesman for Shell toldMarketWatch that the company “believes that the Arctic has significant untapped potential and will play an increasingly important role in meeting the energy challenge.”

Shell was recently down 1.1%, while Total slid 1.8%.

Elsewhere, Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) was up more than 2%. After its split into two companies, Kraft (KFT) will replace Alpha Natural in the S&P 500, which is being bumped down to the Midcap 400. The coal producer is the S&P 500’s worst-performing stock this year, losing 68% through Tuesday’s close.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) shares were moving up 0.4% in recent trading; the company today got permission from the U.S. government to start preliminary work for arctic drilling.

The Department of the Interior said that the company is only allowed to do preparatory work on a well in an area where it does not believe oil is present. Before Royal Dutch Shell would get permission to drill deep enough to reach oil, its spill-containment vessel, the Arctic Challenger, will have to pass inspection, the agency said.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at this time he wasn’t sure if the company would be able to complete a well this year. As the Wall Street Journalreports, Shell says that the Arctic Challenger is less than a week away from getting required certification and work will begin when it reaches the well location, in three or four days. Royal Dutch Shell’s work will take place in the Chukchi Sea, off Alaska’s northwestern coast.

While Bernanke’s speech heartened investors across the board, the energy sector was making gains, in some cases ahead of the broader market, as Isaac appears to have done no large, lasting damage.

In recent trading Chevron (CVX) was gaining 1.6% and Exxon (XOM) was up 0.7%. Both said they were assessing their Gulf Coast facilities.

Valero (VLO) was moving up 1.4% as it reassured investors that its two Louisiana refineries that had been shut down ahead of the storm suffered no major damages.

Anadarko (APC) was gaining 2.6% after announcing that its remote monitoring systems indicate the company’s deep-water oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico are intact. Workers are heading out to the central Gulf today to conduct more inspections, it expects staff to return to eastern Gulf facilities tomorrow.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) added 0.4%; it said workers would return to offshore facilities as soon as today.

BP (BP) rose 0.6% as it said it would conduct flyovers of its offshore operations, weather permitting.

Phillips 66 (PSX) was one exception, falling 1.3% after reporting flooding at its 247,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, one of the areas hit hardest by Isaac.

Valero Energy (VLO), which had reaped gains earlier in the week, was recently trading down 1.5% this afternoon, as a number of energy names fell.

After four days of fire and 48 deaths, Venezuela is in no hurry to reopen the world’s second largest refinery, the government said today, and is first carrying out an extensive inspection.

However, investors’ eyes were now more focused on Isaac, which made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane and breached at least one levee. Experts now see the storm having little impact on gasoline prices and initial reports seem to indicate that most offshore rigs didn’t sustain much damage. Although Isaac’s slow-moving path continues to affect Gulf states, forecasters are now predicting that damage will likely be between $500 million and $1.5 billion, a modest total compared to previous catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina.

Chevron (CVX) was recently down 0.4%, while Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) lost 0.5% and Exxon (XOM) shed just 0.1%; all have operations in the Gulf. Update: Chevron has said that it has evacuated all personnel from its production operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

A deadly refinery blast in Venezuela over the weekend that has claimed the lives of at least 39 people is pushing up the shares of U.S. refiners with Gulf Coast plants, which can step in and provide the South American oil heavyweight with fuel products.

The explosion, at the world’s second largest refining complex occurred Saturday at storage tank, did not cause damage to process units, according to Venezuelan authorities, who expect the refinery to be back online in two days.

However, as Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. analyst wrote in a note today, that rosy prediction is “at a minimum too early to be fully relied upoan. Outage potentially helps US Gulf Coast crack spreads, where refiners have already increased output in recent quarters to account for lower refined product volumes from Venezuela.”

In midday trading Valero Energy Corp. (VLO), Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) and Phillips 66 (PSX) were all making gains on the news.

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Isaac was also boosting shares of BP (BP) Chevron (CVX) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), which have all brought non-essential personnel off their rigs ahead of the storm.

Exxon saw production decline 5% in the first quarter, and net income fell 11% year over year. The year-over-year profit drop was Exxon’s first since 2009. The company reported $2 of EPS, 10 cents below expectations. Exxon also raised its dividend on Wednesday, but investors are clearly focused on the earnings report today. Shares fell 1.7% in midday trading.

The company may be hurting because of its increasing reliance on natural gas, which is still trading at extremely low prices. Exxon’s production was 51% oil and 49% natural gas last year, Bloomberg reports, a more gas-heavy split than competitors.

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